Two prominent environmental groups have joined forces with the coal industry to push the Government to do more to promote carbon capture and storage.

The World Wildlife Fund (WWF) and the Climate Institute have teamed up with the Australian Coal Association (ACA) and the Construction, Forestry, Mining and Energy Union (CFMEU).

Together they are calling on the Government to establish a task force to speed up the development of viable carbon capture and storage technologies.

But it is not a move that pleases the Greens and environmental group Greenpeace, who have described it as deeply disappointing.

John Connor, the chief executive of the Climate Institute, says the group needs to work out whether carbon capture and storage with power is a viable option and what extra policies are going to be needed.

"This partnership will be looking at what are some of the targets and what are some of the policies," he said.

He says he is not worried that this could divert from investment in renewable energies and that by backing this technology, the message could be sent that coal is the future.

"I think no-one is saying that or no-one is even expecting that," he said.

"We've got a booming clean energy market globally and most of that is in renewables right now.

"We need a whole range of policies like that to make sure we've got a diverse range of options and clean energy options.

"No-one is saying that should be monopolised by one form or another."

'Unusual alliance'

The WWF and Climate Institute stress that they receive zero funding from the coal industry.

But Greg Bourne, chief executive of WWF Australia, admits at first glance it is an unusual alliance.

"No money whatsoever and in fact the independence of how we work is obviously very, very jealously guarded," he said.

"Perhaps it seems that way, but there is a commonality of interest here.

"The Climate Institute and ourselves really do understand the urgency and the importance that this technology may well play.

"The way that I put it is, if carbon sequestration is going to work, we need to know very quickly, and if it is not going to work, we actually need to know even more quickly.

"Australia is endowed with an enormous amount of coal, which we can either just say 'well, we write it off', which I think would be irresponsible for the nation and indeed the coal industry."

The new alliance has angered some in the green movement.

Steve Campbell, head of campaigns at Greenpeace, says they are deeply disappointed with the alliance.

"And also with the call to the Government, because in this country we have a real problem that there is not enough money, public money going into renewable energy and energy efficiency," he said.

"We have the highest per capital CO2 emissions in the world and the coal industry is an enormously profitable industry that can fund its own research and development."

Free trade is the oldest argument in federal politics and the issue that literally defined the federation era but opposition exists to the TPP, courtesy of the Investor-State Dispute Resolutions clause.